Category: Coronaplague

mRNA, viral-vector, and traditional COVID-19 vaccines

by philg

Part of an email to family members from a PhD. in physical chemistry (like Angela Merkel!):

The mRNA vaccines (Moderna & Pfizer/Biontech) or viral-vector (vv) DNA vaccines (J&J, AZ/Oxford, Russian Sputnik vaccine, some Chinese vaccines) absolutely do inject foreign genetic material into our bodies and cells to produce the spike protein. Calling them a giant ‘genetic engineering’ experiment on tens of millions of people is appropriate and honest in my opinion, even if the manufacturers, governments and press don’t use that terminology for fear of a backlash against these vaccines. They are deliberately ignoring these scientific long-term questions, and would rather ‘sell us the vaccines’, due to their compelling short-term benefit-to-risk ratio, then call them a large-scale genetic engineering experiment on humans – but that’s what they are. (The AZ/Oxford and J&J vv-DNA vaccines use adenoviruses: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenoviridae, with double-stranded DNA genomes).

I just wish some traditional vaccines were available today that use attenuated, non-viable SARS-CoV-2 virus itself to product the spike protein antigens so that my immune system can get trained! That would be so much less risky than injected mRNA or DNA into my body and cells, and hoping that this massive genetic engineering experiment on tens of millions of humans will not have any ‘off-target toxicities’, like the CRISPR genetic engineering experiments, which last years were shown to have fundamentally inevitable off-target affects in an inherently interactive 3D genome.

Another vaccine strategy would be to inject expressed spike proteins, if we can protect them from immediate degradation, rather than mRNA or DNA genetic code, as that would dramatically reduce the plausible, but unproven threat of genetic engineering on our germline, immune system or somatic cells. Note that neither of these vaccination strategies would prevent an immune overreaction with potentially increased autoimmune disease.

He recommends that anyone who has ever tested positive for COVID-19 and/or who has had a positive antibody test try to avoid getting stuck with the as-yet-unproven high tech vaccines. I’m not sure that this is practical given that governments may not allow the unvaccinated to leave their houses (but they’ll still be “free” to watch Netflix and Disney+). A more practical approach might to be travel to a country where one of the old-tech Chinese-developed vaccines is available. “Covid: What do we know about China’s coronavirus vaccines?” (BBC, January 14):

The Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac is behind the CoronaVac, an inactivated vaccine. It works by using killed viral particles to expose the body’s immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response.

By comparison the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines being developed in the West are mRNA vaccines. This means part of the coronavirus’ genetic code is injected into the body, triggering the body to begin making viral proteins, but not the whole virus, which is enough to train the immune system to attack. “CoronaVac is a more traditional method [of vaccine] that is successfully used in many well known vaccines like rabies,” Associate Prof Luo Dahai of the Nanyang Technological University told the BBC. “mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine and there is [currently] no successful example [of them] being used in the population,” Prof Luo adds.

Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned company, is developing two Covid-19 vaccines, which, like Sinovac are also inactivated vaccines that work in a similar way.

Where to go? How about Dubai?

However, the United Arab Emirates, which approved a Sinopharm vaccine earlier this month, said the vaccine was 86% effective, according to interim results of its phase three trial.

Tried-and-true method Chinese vaccines are also approved in Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Here’s your hotel in Turkey… (from a 2007 trip to Cappadocia):

(Turkey is open to Americans with a negative PCR test taken 72 hours prior.)

Related:

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Vaccine angst because the people who want it most are the least likely to qualify?

by philg

Among the middle-aged, the folks I know who are most afraid of COVID-19 are the least likely to have received it. I wonder if this is why we hear so much about people who are upset by the government-run vaccine programs (the same folks, of course, want the government to take over additional sectors of the economy).

One 40ish friend lives in Southern California, sends children to an in-person private school (public schools are closed, of course), and is a lockdown denier. Rather than wait in his bunker for an army of Latinx essential workers to deliver what he needs, he has been a habitual in-person Walgreen’s shopper during our year (so far) of “14 days to flatten the curve”. He left his phone number for the pharmacists in case they had any extra vaccine doses, received a call the next afternoon, and had a shot 30 minutes later. Friends who stayed in their bunkers clutching N95 masks? They got maxed out web sites, infinite hold times on phone calls, and no vaccine.

A friend in his 30s regularly attends in-person social gatherings. His circle of irresponsible Covid-spreaders includes a dentist. The dentist called him in January and said “I made an appointment for you to get a vaccine. Show up tomorrow at 11 am.” He did and he is now vaccinated.

Friends who have been volunteering for various charitable organizations, accepting the coronarisk of various in-person programs, have all been vaccinated as “essential workers” or “first responders” or similar. Friends who’ve been cowering while denouncing Trump on Facebook? No vaccine for them because they don’t fit any favored category.

Has this been a cruel twist of fate?

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Will vaccine imposter become a career option?

by philg

Consider the young American who doesn’t wish to become a test subject for a vaccine whose own manufacturer characterizes it as “investigational”. He/she/ze/they will still have all of the freedoms guaranteed to him/her/zir/them under the Constitution. It is simply that he/she/ze/they will not be able to work, leave the house, go into a store, get on a commercial airliner, eat at a restaurant, check into a hotel, etc.

From a vaccine-skeptical reader:

I’ve been thinking, since I now walk around in a Joe Biden sized mask, safety goggles and a winter hat, how easy it would be to find someone to take the vaccine on my behalf?

Vaccination sites can’t demand identification (“documentation”) because otherwise America’s 22 million (or maybe 29 million) undocumented wouldn’t be able to get vaccines.

Why wouldn’t it be practical to pay someone to get an additional vaccine and take home a vaccination certificate in an arbitrarily selected name? In fact, folks who are most enthusiastic about vaccines might be delighted to do this for a small cash payment. If two shots are good, maybe three or four shots are better. If there is some immunity from Moderna, why not add additional immunity from J&J?

What about requiring RFID chips as well? See Human RFID chips for coronaplague contact tracing can also sense temperature and #Science proves that I was right (about the need for RFID chips in humans for COVID-19 surveillance) and RFID chips in the necks of college students. If not already present, the RFID chip is inserted along with the first dose of vaccine. Then we can be sure that the person who claims to be vaccinated is actually the same person who was injected.

Leo and Mindy the Crippler seem happy with their chips:

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Californians: Walk over to the local vaccine clinic and get your shot

by philg

In order to get a shot that he did not need, a healthy slender fit work-from-home 32-year-old whom I know volunteered for 8 hours at a vaccine clinic in northern California. “People are supposed to have appointments,” he said, “and prove this by coming with a printout. But nobody checks because we had no way to look up anyone’s name or what appointments had been booked. Everyone who said ‘I don’t have a printer’ got a shot.” Did young-looking people have to bring proof of conditions or status in order to get shots? “No,” he replied. “Restaurant workers qualify, so you might think that a pay stub should be required, but unemployed restaurant workers also qualify and they can’t be expected to have a pay stub since they’re not getting paid.” Anyone who identifies as an unemployed restaurant worker with an appointment, even if showing up with no documentation, will get a shot.

The work-from-home Shutdown Karen featured blaming “Latinos” in Assumption that masks are effective leads to conclusion that people of color are responsible for coronaplague went down the hill from his all-white enclave into Oakland to the vaccine clinic set up to ensure that “communities of color” get shots. He and his wife are in their 50s and reasonably fit. They were seeking afternoon leftover shots and found that the clinic was undersubscribed and happy to inject them. They then asked if their college-age and high-school-age children could come the next day. Appointments were made for these not-at-risk cower-at-home individuals as well. Nobody in the household has any reason to leave the house nor to be concerned about COVID-19 and yet all are now vaccinated.

It seems that the only Californians who can’t get shots are those who wish to follow the state’s elaborate guidelines and procedures.

Here’s my personal nominee for someone who should get a shot. A Samoyed is depending on her! (or was depending on her back in 2004 when I took the photo)

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Year 2 AC: Public versus private sector jobs

by philg

I’ve been referring to everything that happened prior to March 2020 as “BC” (Before Corona, not to be confused with “BCE” for years prior to Jesus’s birth). We’re just beginning Year 2 “AC”, therefore. Public sector workers have been mostly relaxing at home for a year, still drawing full paychecks, e.g., Boston Public School teachers. Should one of these folks fall ill due to COVID-19 or any other cause, he/she/ze/they will be paid via disability insurance.

What’s it like in the private sector? A housecleaner I know had to continue working, accepting whatever risk of COVID-19 was entailed, if she wanted to be paid. She’s around 60 years old and therefore has more age-related COIVD-19 risk than the average public sector worker (many of whom are eligible to retire at 50 or younger). She recently suffered a fall on a narrow staircase in a Beacon Hill home (these structures are fully compliant with all building and safety codes… of the early 1800s; see “For $20.5 million, Beacon Hill town house next to John Kerry” for an example) and broke both radius bones in her forearms. She’s unable to work, of course, and won’t be receiving payments from a disability policy. She’s expected to recover and has a lot of support from family (Brazilian immigrants), but the story made me reflect on the precariousness of a lot of folks’ existence.

(The teachers aren’t “relaxing at home,” you say, because they have to be present on Zoom for some hours each week? While down in Florida in January, I met a Massachusetts public school system employee nearing full retirement (early 60s). She didn’t enjoy being on Zoom so she began to use the months of sick leave she’d accumulated over the years. “It will run out by next fall,” she explained, “but the union says that I’ll be able to use days from the sick bank until I’m eligible for maximum retirement benefits in November.” In other words, she will have been paid in full for 1.5 years without having to get closer to the Massachusetts school than Florida and without having to appear on Zoom.)

Now that economic opportunities exist only when governors give permission, is it more important than ever to prepare young people for careers as government workers?

Loosely related, from February 19, 2021 in Waltham, Massachusetts:

We still have plenty of opioids for anyone who is depressed about losing a private sector job!

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Facebook fact check

by philg

A Floridian’s Facebook post today, updated for her by Facebook’s team of scientific experts:

(Disclaimer: I was not one of the Deplorables who “liked” this post!)

Facebook implies that COVID-19 vaccines are “approved“. As noted in We love our children so much we will give them an investigational vaccine, the manufacturers themselves are careful to disclose that their products are not approved. Moderna, for example, says “The Moderna COVID‑19 Vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) … There is no FDA-approved vaccine to prevent COVID‑19.” and that the vaccine is “investigational”:

What does Johnson and Johnson say? “The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), … There is no FDA-approved vaccine to prevent COVID-19.”

How about Pfizer? “The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but has been authorized for emergency use by FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) for use in individuals 16 years of age and older. The emergency use of this product is only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of the medical product under Section 564(b)(1) of the FD&C Act unless the declaration is terminated or authorization revoked sooner.”

Related:

  • “Fact Check: Did India Ban the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine?” (Newsweek): Conspiracy theory website Infowars claimed on February 14, 2021, that India had banned the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine due to safety concerns. … On February 3, 2021, India’s Subject Expert Committee (SEC), a panel that advises the nation’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), a national regulatory body focused on pharmaceuticals and devices, ruled that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine should not be recommended for an EUA in the country “at this stage.” … India has not banned the Pfizer vaccine. However, it has turned down its request for an emergency use authorization “at this stage.” … The Ruling: Mostly False. [I.e., the vaccine is not “banned” in India; it is simply illegal to inject]
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Should we take kidneys and partial livers from young people to help older people?

by philg

We’re now at the one-year anniversary of when the governor here in Maskachusetts declared a state of emergency and began to tell healthy young people that they needed to give up what turned out to be at least a year of their lives (education, social activity, building work experience, maintaining fitness via sports/gym, etc.) in hopes of extending the lives of folks with a median age of 82.

The logic of lockdown is that young people are required by law to sacrifice if there is an old person whose life could possibly be extended via that sacrifice.

What if we applied the same logic to organ harvesting? No young person actually needs two kidneys nor a full-size liver. Removing a kidney or part of a liver from a young person wouldn’t cost the young person a full year of life expectancy and it could save the life of an older person.

We were comfortable with taking what has turned out to be a year of life away from the young. Why aren’t we comfortable imposing on them a slight inconvenience (only 4 to 6 days in the hospital) in order to get organs that they don’t need and that could help save lives among the old/sick?

Related (Department of Old v. Young):

  • “Hundreds of rowdy revelers throw out-of-control street party near University of Colorado, Boulder, campus” (ABC): … up to 800 people, most appearing to be college-aged, prompting violent clashes with SWAT police who deployed at least one armored vehicle to disperse the crowd, according to authorities. … Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty released a statement on Sunday, saying his office is working with police detectives to identify suspects who “should be held fully responsible for their outrageous actions.” “Our community was put at risk last night by the individuals involved in the incident in the Hill area. Their callous disregard for our community’s safety and well-being is shameful,” Dougherty’s statement said. “There is no excuse for this conduct, especially while the people of this community endure the pandemic.”
  • a tale of a kidney transplant flight (2010); photo above is from that trip
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Commercial flights during Coronapanic: a mostly mask-free experience

by philg

A tale of a recent trip from Boston to Washington-Dulles on United Airlines… (my first on an airliner since the BC epoch (“Before Coronapanic”))

The good news is that all of our post-9/11 security fears have been resolved. I don’t remember hearing any announcements about “if you see something, say something”, leaving cars unattended at the curb, or calling the authorities after spotting unattended bags.

The not-so-good news is that our security fears have been replaced by COVID-19 fears. The best news, though, as anyone in California or Spain can attest, is coronavirus can never succeed amongst masked humans, no matter how primitive the mask technology. Combining these two, the airport authorities and the airlines have cooperated to bombard passengers with literally hundreds of signs and announcements regarding masks: (1) wear them, (2) don’t wear them under your nose, (3) don’t worry about COVID-19 if you’re masked, etc. I stopped counting at 200 exposures (signs+audio) after less than 30 minutes in Logan airport.

After being educated literally hundreds of time on this topic, did I wear a mask in the terminal? No. I sat down at a Legal Sea Foods restaurant across from the gate, ordered a salad and an ice tea, and timed the completion of my meal to coincide with the final boarding call.

One improvement is that the gate agents no longer do “hurry up so that you can wait in the jet bridge.” I was handed a disinfecting wipe as soon as I walked onto the plane. But if I were worried enough about getting COVID-19 from surface contamination to use the wipe, why would I have been on the plane to begin with? (see Does disinfectant theater contribute to coronaplague?)

Unlike Delta, United does not block the middle seats. They’ve cut so many flights that, despite the minimal demand, most people on my BOS-IAD leg were jammed into completely occupied rows. I’m a “Silver” member so I ended up towards the front in a row with an empty middle seat between myself and a slender young guy who seemed completely uninterested in the Festival of Corona.

The United app delivers this message if you open it up in flight:

The lead flight attendant on the plane delivered the same message multiple times over the PA as well. He took care to say that he’d seen passengers wearing masks improperly and that this would not be tolerated.

As soon as we took off, though, the Cart of Demaskification was brought out. People like me who hadn’t asked for a drink were offered one. I responded to the offer with “Coke please” and was given an entire can… which takes about as long to drink as the flight time from Boston to D.C. The fine print above says that people are supposed to put on a mask “between bites and sips”, but I didn’t see anyone doing that. So masks are like face seatbelts: required for takeoff and landing.

On arrival at Dulles, the messaging regarding masks resumed. Here’s a big electronic sign that presumably used to promote all of the great things going on in Virginia. Now it is “Mask Up Virginia” over a Dunkin’ Donuts sign:

(see also Public health, American-style: Donuts at the vaccine clinic and “90 percent of COVID deaths occur in countries with high obesity levels: study” (New York Post, March 5, 2021))

The only other message that the airport authorities seemed interested in delivering was a hearty rainbow flag welcome:

The return trip was similar, right down to the full can of soda served shortly after takeoff (45-minute cruise segment). Although the flight was not crowded, the terminal was jammed. Perhaps large sections have been shut down, which means passengers are now on top of each other near the gates that remain in use. The sit-down restaurants are, as at Logan, highly sought-after locations for those who want to relax unmasked, and there were (socially distanced) lines forming in front of some.

I joined the connoisseurs at the forbidden-in-Boston Chick-fil-A, which meant that I was unmasked for almost my entire wait. (One doesn’t want to wolf down a delicious meal that is denied to most residents of Maskachusetts.)

If anyone in the gate area actually did have coronavirus, there was a sufficiently dense crowd for spreading it:

I wouldn’t recommended the experience for those who are anxious about COVID-19. While you’re constantly being reminded about how hazardous COVID-19 is, there isn’t enough room in the airport to be truly distant from those who are potentially infected. People sit glumly with their masks on, waiting to see how the Russian roulette game that they’ve chosen to play will turn out. Unless you believe in the effectiveness of crude non-N95 masks, it’s the same risk level as being in a crowded Miami club, but a lot less fun.

Update 3/18: “Climate czar John Kerry caught going maskless on flight” (New York Post); Kerry’s response on Twitter: “If I dropped my mask to one ear on a flight, it was momentary. I wear my mask because it saves lives and stops the spread. It’s what the science tells us to do.“

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Is coronavirus reading my blog and trying to make me look stupid?

by philg

From February 16, 2021, Is it double-masking or Joe Biden’s presidency that has beaten coronavirus?, which contained the following chart:

I felt confident enough that this strong trend would continue that I wrote:

As promised, Joe Biden has shut down the coronavirus. And, not only has he shut down coronavirus in the U.S., he’s defeated this pathogen on a planetary scale.

How about the same New York Times page today? The global chart:

What if we look locally instead of globally? Cases have continued to fall in the U.S., but at a slower rate of decline than in mid-February.

Other than “Philip is stupid,” how do we explain the recent slight upward trend worldwide?

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A 7-year-old contemplates the government’s $1.9 trillion gift to the American People

by philg

A bedtime scene:

  • 7-year-old: Joe Biden is going to send us money.
  • Mom: No. Joe Biden is going to take money from us and send it to other people. Our income is too high to qualify for the money that Joe Biden is sending out.
  • 7-year-old: You and Dad should stop working then, so that you can get the money instead of paying the money.

Which reminds me… what is actually in this bill? It is supposedly about $1,400 checks for most Americans (do children, retirees, and those already on welfare get checks?)? But if we divide $1.9 trillion by 308 million (Census-estimated population of 330 million minus the 22 million undocumented who presumably won’t qualify for a federal program organized by Social Security number), we get $6,169 per documented American. Plainly, the majority of this $1.9 trillion is going somewhere other than into average Americans’ pockets.

(Does it make sense to pay the same amount to a government worker who has been paid in full to stay home and work a few hours per day as it does to a self-employed Uber driver whose income has been reduced and whose job requires leaving the house and being exposed to COVID-19?)

From the New York Times:

It would inject vast amounts of federal resources into the economy, including one-time direct payments of up to $1,400 for hundreds of millions of Americans, jobless aid of $300 a week to last through the summer, money for distributing coronavirus vaccines and relief for states, cities, schools and small businesses struggling during the pandemic.

Beyond the immediate aid, the bill, titled the American Rescue Plan, is estimated to cut poverty by a third this year and would plant the seeds for what Democrats hope will become an income guarantee for children. It would potentially cut child poverty in half, through a generous expansion of tax credits for Americans with children — which Democrats hope to make permanent — increases in subsidies for child care, a broadening of eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, and an expansion of food stamps and rental assistance.

The last part sounds like a continuation of the trend discussed in When and why did it become necessary to pay Americans to have children? (2015). Going forward, the childless will be mined out even more thoroughly and made to work even longer hours to take over what would have been the costs of rearing children. I also wonder if this will make being a family court entrepreneur more lucrative relative to working. State child support formulae won’t change. Having sex with a dentist, for example, should still yield $1-2 million in Massachusetts. But the plaintiff who collects child support and works a few hours per week will now also be entitled to additional tax credits and taxpayer-funded child care. Instead of building the spending power of a dentist by having sex with three dentists, it might be possible to obtain the spending power of a dentist by having sex with two dentists (especially if income tax rates also go up; remember that child support is not taxable). Going to dental school may not look so smart anymore.

How does this spending compare to the Collapse of 2008?

Its eye-popping cost is just shy of the $2.2 trillion stimulus measure that became law last March … Even with changes, the bill remained more than than double the size of the roughly $800 billion stimulus package that Congress approved in 2009, when Mr. Biden was vice president, to counter the toll of the Great Recession.

So Americans are spending more than 4X at the federal level on coronapanic compared to what we spent cleaning up after our unwise enthusiasm for subprime mortgages.

What about the only enterprise in the U.S. that couldn’t figure out how to reopen?

$130 billion to primary and secondary schools

Rewarding public schools’ lack of effort with $130 billion will certainly not encourage them to repeat their performance during the next wave of coronavariants! (Alternatively, why not give the $130 billion to the schools that actually reopened no later than, say, September 1, 2020?)

Fair to say that this $1.9 trillion spending package will address every bumper sticker on the back of this car? (from January 2020)

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